PULLMAN – It was supposed to be UCLA’s superior length and off-the-charts athleticism agitating Washington State Wednesday evening.
Rest assured, those things often did in an 87-67 win for the Bruins at Beasley Coliseum.
But the Cougars (8-13, 1-7) didn’t lose their fourth consecutive game and seventh in Pac-12 play so much because they lacked a player on the roster capable of matching up with UCLA’s willowy, springy 7-foot-1 center, Moses Brown, or because they’re without the sheer talent or depth of a team that recruits the West Coast as well as anyone in the country.
A UCLA team that’s been bad from the 3-point arc and worse at the free-throw line managed to shoot 47 percent from the first area and 75 percent from the second.